


The Cliff

by youhavebeenstopped



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Hair Braiding, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, One Shot, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Thor (Marvel) Needs a Hug, fuck the russos part II, gay™, like bruh they both do fr, soft boys central, thruce rights!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 11:16:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21117890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youhavebeenstopped/pseuds/youhavebeenstopped
Summary: “You want me to braid your hair back?” Bruce kindly offered.Thor’s mismatched eyes flew up in fond surprise. “Banner! I didn’t know you could braid.”





	The Cliff

“It’s beautiful out here.”

The boulder they sat upon was cold and rough under Bruce’s callused hands. Humid gusts of wind carried the intoxicating smell of saltwater. Waves of water crashed far below over the limestone cliffs.

An endless horizon of rippling blue water shimmered in front of the two men.

Bruce, however, was looking at the god, rather than the serene landscape that sprawled around them. There was something different about Thor; an air of change that he couldn’t put his finger on.

_ He _ had _ put on a few pounds, _ Bruce thought_. Surely we all have, myself included. There was nothing to do anymore. Thanos is dead, no more fight, nowhere to go; it was too quiet. _

_ But he’d be damned if Thor still didn’t look as amazing as ever. _

Thor smiled wistfully, eyes crinkling. “Yes, I suppose it is. Funny, though. I never got out and visited this place again until now.” He paused heavily. “You know, my father died right here.”

The scientist’s heart skipped a beat at the strangely casual tone in Thor’s voice, but he kept listening. The waves solemnly crashed far below.

“That was right after finding out that bombshell about Hela, of course. And before getting thrown out to Sakaar on the Bifrost.”

Bruce smiled at the chaotic and fuzzy memory of being on Sakaar with Thor but faltered for a moment. “I didn’t realize your dad passed away right before then. I’m... I’m sorry.”

Thor brushed a large be-gloved hand in the humid air as if shoving off a particularity annoying fly. “Doesn’t matter. I used to be sorry too.”

Another weighted but guilty pause. “Well... I guess I still am.”

It had been a little over a year since It happened.

The Snap. The Beheading.

“Um. So,” Bruce coughed, quite unsure of what to say. He curled his legs in a criss-cross sitting style, tapping the surface of the dewey rock distractedly. “How’s the whole King-of-Asgard thing?”

“Oh, not so bad. Had a rough patch with my people and housing situations, land ownership, and other things,” Thor explained, equally unknowing as how to answer.

“Oh. And how did it go after... y’know.”

Thor exhaled, a trifle testily. “As well as you could imagine after losing half of the _ already few _ that survived Ragnarök.”

Bruce blinked and looked away at last. _ Thor is hurting, of course. But aren’t we all? _

Thor immediately regretted saying it after watching Bruce’s eyes turn from tender to hurt in a second. “I’m sorry, Banner. I should- I shouldn’t have been short. I can’t imagine what the Avengers are doing right now, but I’m sure they would be nothing without you.”

“Thanks, man,” Bruce said softly, with a smile. “But to be honest, I’m not sure what the rest of us are doing either. We all kinda went our own ways a few months ago.”

Thor nodded expectantly and moved his legs to face his friend, in the same criss-cross fashion. “Of course they would. As I also have done.”

Bruce suddenly realized right then what was making Thor look different.

“You’re growing your hair out, I see,” Bruce said in a teasing tone, gesturing to the awkward blond locks that hung above Thor’s shoulders.

“Yes, I suppose I am. You don’t like them?” Thor said, now smiling as well, and scooted closer to the other man.

“Oh, sure I do, but I think they looked better after that creepy old guy cut ‘em off. I wonder if he does business outposts to Earth? My hair is feeling a little too long in the back.”

Thor giggled heartily at this. The sun glimmered from over his shoulder and reflected off of Bruce’s kind grin. The scientist’s beautiful curling hair was turning noticeably more silver on the sides.

_ God, how he had missed him. _

Korg and Miek were assuredly great fun to hang out with, for a short while. Valkyrie was his rock; she kept him steady to work for his people, despite his falling spirits. Thor was running out of things to do for his town to distract himself from the nothingness.

The cold, quiet, guilty, and empty feeling of nothing.

Bruce, by just being alive, breathing, and simply radiating kindness, gave Thor the deep impression of there being no wrong in the half-dead, quiet world.

Seagulls and other small flocks of birds tittered high above the grassy cliff, curiously circling the two new prospects. They kept talking, unabashedly caring how close they now sat facing each other.

“These keep getting in my face though,” Thor gestured to the small strands near his face and brushed them away. “They’re pretty annoying.”

“You’ll need a barrette, then,” Bruce teased again, putting a soft hand forward to brush the same strands that fell once more. “I’ll get you a pack of ten in all sorts of colors, so you can stack ‘em.”

Thor threw in another light chuckle for good measure. He wondered what a “barrette” was as he cautiously moved another inch closer. 

“You want me to braid your hair back?” Bruce kindly offered.

His mismatched eyes flew up in fond surprise. “Banner! I didn’t know you could braid.”

“Really? Some little girls in Calcutta taught me how a few years ago. When I was in exile, remember?”

Thor’s face was in cheery adoration but dropped minutely. “I had forgotten. It was terrible what they did to you.”

He hadn’t realized Thor’s hands were in his for the past few moments. 

A sudden swoop brought Bruce back to Earth. The soft, sweeping feeling spread from his stomach to the very outreaches of his fingers and toes; to every ounce of his being.

“It’s-it’s fine. I’m okay,” Bruce muttered, suddenly rather conscientious of himself.

_ God, what was he doing? This is Thor, he doesn’t want to have to deal with me. After all that he’s going through, anyway. _

Thor picked up on Bruce’s sudden discomfort and pulled back an inch. “I’m-I’m sorry, Banner. I hope I wasn’t making you uncomfortable.”

“Huh? Oh no, no, you’re good. I’m sorry, I just- no. It’s fine. Did you want me to braid it, then?”

Thor’s face broke into an excited grin and threw off his gloves quickly. “Sure! I don’t have any brush or comb at the moment, I’m sorry... but I have... a hair tie!” He rooted around in a leather bag of sorts around his waist, and triumphantly pulled out a small lump of fabric.

Bruce tilted his head in amused wonderment at how and why Thor had a navy blue scrunchie dotted with white daisies. “Okay. You’re a lot taller than me, buddy, so I think you gotta sit on the rock or ground, sorry.”

“No worries,” Thor hummed, moving to the grass and facing out towards the brightly reflecting water.

Bruce moved to lean over the blond man’s head but suddenly forgot how to begin. “Wait, would you like a French or Dutch braid?” he asked quietly, slightly flustered.

“There’s more than one to choose from!? So cool. The Dutch one sounds interesting, yet I have no idea what it looks like. Surprise me!”

Bruce couldn’t help but smile at Thor and the absurdity of it all.

_ Here was the God of Thunder, from space, after everything this past year, getting his hair braided by a literally and figuratively mad scientist on a Norwegian cliff, and asking for a Dutch braid. _

He began at the top of Thor’s head, weaving the strands backward from the normal French style, careful not to pull too hard.

If one thing his observation classes told him, Thor was not taking care of himself these past few months. His hair laid limp and rather stringy from little to no washing, yet Bruce tried to not thinking twice about it.

“So. What’s... um. What’s the weather like up here? Always like this?”

Thor awoke from another trance suddenly. The old and familiar sense of touch was coming back to him, almost making the god want to cry, melt, and turn red from embarrassment all at once. It was enough to make him sigh contently aloud.

“Sorr-sorry. What was that?”

Bruce repeated himself and pulled another uneven strand from above his ear into the braid.

“Oh, yes. Like this, a lot. It was warm in the summer, though. Just humid, all the time,” he drabbled, suddenly feeling altogether quite too warm and fuzzy for the cold, sticky air of fall.

Bruce nodded and hummed, and continued.

“Um, so? How’s Tony? Is he recovering alright?” Thor asked, remembering his last experience with the other Avengers.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, he’s good. A slow path, but sure,” Bruce said, but then lit up. “Hey! Did you hear that he and Pepper are expecting?!”

Thor blinked. “Expecting what? A letter, or news, something?”

“A baby, you moron!”

“Oh. OH!” he cried, finally understanding the strange phrase. “That’s great!! I’ll offer my congratulations when I see them again! How wonderful.”

Bruce was laughing wholeheartedly behind him and almost dropped the completed short and choppy braid.

“I’m almost done, man,” he said, still holding in a fit of giggles and hiccups. “I just gotta... gotta put in the scrunchie.”

Saying this bizarre sentence aloud while wrapping the scrunchie around the end of the braid suddenly ignited Bruce again, throwing him into another bout of belly laughter. Thor stood quickly at the alarming sound and grasped on to the shoulders of the shorter man, whose eyes were filled with tears and face red from laughter.

“What _ is _so funny, Banner?” Thor grinned, beginning to convulse and join into the nonsensical hilarity of the whole situation.

Bruce hiccuped loudly, and his high-pitched humming declined. He wiped away a stray tear in one eye before re-clinging his hand to the crook of Thor’s elbow. The taller man brushed the other with the thumb set on Bruce’s cheek, cradling with both hands so softly.

“Oh, Bruce!” Thor simply beamed. “How I have missed you.”

_ Oh. _ They were so close together. It was strange to hear Thor use his first name, and it felt rather comfortingly familiar. Bruce could not think of another time where someone had said his name so dearly or held him so carefully, as right now. “Yeah... I missed you too, man.”

This just felt so _ right _ to him. The man he adored was right in his arms over a blazingly blue sky. Thor felt almost no shame, in that shining and pure moment, and began to ask tentatively:

“Could I kiss you?” Bruce spoke first. 

“You took the words right of my mouth!”

“Jinx, then.”

Their lips melt. Bruce’s heart almost lept out of his chest, but Thor’s hands were cupped steadily around his face. Thor could have melted right there in his arms. So much for being the great God of Thunder.

_ After so long, and after so much. _ That wonderful, sweet kiss broke after a few seconds and Thor looked lovingly into Bruce’s eyes. The scientist’s face shone, substituting the clouded-over sun in the dusking sky.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” Bruce murmured, running a soft thumb along Thor’s sandy beard. “Probably ever since I woke up in that Quinn-Jet.”

Thor hummed at this and set his arms around the shorter man’s shoulders. He couldn’t think of an exact moment where he realized his love for Banner. Bruce. It sort of seemed like many years in the making; small glances, shared laughs, flirting. “I love you, you know. So much.”

“I love you too. I can’t- I just can’t believe I can say that after all that we’ve been through together.”

Thor drew him into a warm hug. “I know, my darling. I don’t know either. But I know with you, I can do this. I can be the person I am with you.”

_ Oh yeah, _ Bruce thought contently. _ These extra pounds are so much better for hugging. _“Please come back with me, everyone misses you. Well, not as much as I do. There’re only so much more videocall arguments between Cap and Tony that I can take.”

The god opened his eyes at last over Bruce’s shoulder. _ Shit, how is this going to work? _ “Could- could you. Um, I dunno. Stay here, if you’d like? I mean, Tony and Pepper aren’t having that baby for another few _ years _and… maybe we could visit them in a few weeks instead.”

Bruce pulled back and looked bewildered. 

“Or not! Or not, if you don’t want to stay, that’s fine-”

“No, no, sweetheart!” Bruce giggled again. “Humans have babies within, like, 9 months. I would _love_ to stay with you, man! I mean, only if you want to and your people are okay with me-”

“Asgard will love you. You are their champion, as much as mine.”

At this, Bruce's eyes began to fill with tears. No one, over all the years, even with Tony and Betty, had been so kind to him as Thor always was. 

He pulled the taller man into another hug with his arms wrapped around his head, careful not to pull out that terrible scrunchie.

The two began walking east again, down from that sacred and wind-whipped cliff, hand in hand. The sun was making a last appearance in the reddening sky before it disappeared entirely.

Thor turned quickly, suddenly mesmerized by the bright pink colors, as if noticing the brightness for the first time in weeks. Bruce smiled fondly at Thor’s youthful curiosity before he turned back.

For a long, torturous year, the two guilt-ridden men had lived in somber, quiet darkness. 

But together at last, after so long and so much, they were beginning to see the light.

**Author's Note:**

> in short,  
🌈
> 
>   
no cap this took me 2+ months of on-off writing lmao  
hmu on tumblr @and-remember-meme


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